Smokers often are required or choose to extinguish a partially-smoked cigarette and the partially-smoked cigarette then is stored for further smoking at a later time. A variety of devices has been proposed which will function both as an extinguisher for the cigarette and as a storage means for the extinguished cigarette.
In particular, the applicants are aware of the following U.S. patents:
______________________________________ 1,459,077 1,598,112 2,246,642 2,335,674 2,536,302 2,715,961 2,781,762 3,107,674 3,978,981 4,587,980 4,660,575 4,777,968 4,809,715 4,886,076 ______________________________________
The cited prior art describes a variety of devices in the form of a housing which is intended to be permanent in nature and in which the cigarette is extinguished and then stored.
One problem faced by a smoker extinguishing a cigarette and then subsequently relighting the cigarette for further smoking is that a burnt tobacco taste and/or odour may be detected by the smoker as a result of contamination of the cigarette by gaseous or solid contaminants when the cigarette was extinguished. To attempt to combat the worst aspects of this effect, the prior art has provided cutting devices to remove the extinguished coal and expose fresh tobacco for relighting the cigarette. For example, in the above-cited prior art, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,459,077 and 3,107,674 teach built-in cutting devices.